Filed under: UFC
BOSTON — At 31 years old, BJ Penn feels time slipping away. Almost a decade ago, he was a 22-year-old wunderkind who seemed like the one-man evolution of a nascent sport. Since then, at times, he was the guy who seemed to come up short in the big fight. Later, he became a two-division champion. Now, he’s practically an elder statesman.
For all his prodigious talent, Penn has had the epic career to go with it, though this “epic” has as much to do with peaks and valleys of high drama as it does the casual “epic” currently tossed around by this generation to signify something amazing. Penn’s most recent setback came in April, when he was upset by massive underdog Frankie Edgar in Abu Dhabi.
Since then, Penn’s been preternaturally quiet. This is the guy who told Georges St. Pierre he was ready to fight “to the death,” told Sean Sherk he’d punish him for using steroids and once spent a whole season of “The Ultimate Fighter” antagonizing Jens Pulver. Yet, in the leadup to his rematch with Edgar, Penn’s had surprisingly little to say. And when he has spoken, he’s been alternately self-critical, self-aware and, at times, brutally blunt.